I was gifted with a venison shoulder and a couple of loins the other day, and can't fit both bags in my freezer. So, while my honey works all day, I get an uninterrupted day of cooking. The easiest thing to do with the shoulder is stew (though I did knock around the idea of doing pulled venison... maybe next time). Started with a crock pot of sweet potato, onions, celery, carrot, garlic, thyme, oregano, parsley, apples and garlic. Then I got to butchering the venison. Being that it's a wild animal, there is a lot of connective tissue, so it doesn't come apart as easily as a pork shoulder, and all that tissue needs to be removed. Taking the silver skin off isn't that hard, just time consuming. Take the tip of a very sharp knife and slip it under the silver skin, sliding the knife to the right to give you an end to grab on to. Spin the piece around, and bring the knife the other way, gently pulling with your left hand and sliding the knife between the meat and the silver skin, trying to lose as little meat as possible. It's not hard if you take your time. (I did discover that if the meat is previously frozen, as this piece was, it comes off even easier, pretty much just peels off once you get an end to pull.)
I got as much off as I needed to, cubed it up and tossed it in the crock pot. My liquid is a mishmash, but brings tons of flavor - Fat Tire beer, spiced apple cider, a little really good bourbon, a couple tablespoons of coffee, and finished with chicken stock. Yeah, I'm nuts, I know. Oh, and I added a pinch of cumin too. The earthy quality of that echos the game taste of the meat. Mix it all up with a good dose of salt and pepper, and it will cook all day long.
After cooking for almost 12 hours on low, it's so tender it melts. So so good!
served with buttermilk biscuits and roasted pumpkin, it made for an incredible dinner.